"The key seems to be that although guilt feels unpleasant to the individual, it can be quite beneficial for the group, causing people to do what's good for the group at personal cost— and sometimes even at the expense of other individuals. These managers are more likely to support layoffs to keep a company profitable than those who are less guilt-prone.

Even inducing a temporary sense of guilt made participants in an experiment more likely to endorse layoffs. It's not that guilt-prone managers don't feel bad having to lay people off — it's that, for reasons the researchers are still investigating, guilt seems to create a greater sense of responsibility to the organization."

Researcher Becky Schaumberg became interested in studying a possible link between guilt and leadership when she noticed that successful, hard-working people said that they were encouraged by guilty feelings.